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Fire and the spread of invasive plants are two of the most pressing challenges facing the sagebrush steppe throughout the Great Basin and Washington’s Columbia Basin. A new report by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) provides a comprehensive assessment and strategies for dealing with fire and weedy invasives. These include options for conservation of sagebrush in...

The three newly hatched bluebirds in the snapshot below want to give a shout out to all our sponsors! Monitors rarely glimpse a shell fragment with new young inside a nest box…the adults either remove shells promptly after hatching or perhaps they consume them for the calcium content. As I take quick grabs with my smart phone, the quality/sharpness isn’t...

Cle Elum and Naches Areas—In the cold, clear waters of the Cle Elum River, an angler tries her luck catching trout as early morning steam rises into the air. Far to the south over several forested ridges, a group of motorbike enthusiasts are unloading their trailers in preparation for a day out on the Cub Creek trails in the Little...

President Donald Trump signed on March 12 a landmark public lands bill with huge implications for national land acquisition for conservation, as well as for Washington state issues and projects. Every member of the Washington delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives passed this wide-ranging bill. Important for land acquisition of priority lands for permanent conservation protection and promotion of...

Come volunteer with the YVAS booth; enjoy the festivities; bring the family!

Once again, it is almost time to celebrate nature with families at the Yakima Area Arboretum’s annual Arborfest, on Saturday, April 13th from 10am to 3 pm, at the Yakima Area Arboretum. This is a free community event, celebrating Arbor Day, spring, conservation, and nature. Featured are...

During this cold, sometimes gloomy, time of year, it is fun to look back at warmer, sunnier times, especially when they involve birds. Last year (2018) was the fifth year that Joe and I monitored and maintained our little trail on Cleman Mountain which is accessed through the WDFW gate at the hay barn storing feed for wintering elk. Like...

It was an odd Saturday morning on December 29 that greeted the birders on the Yakima Valley Christmas Bird Count. Weather conditions made it seem like an early spring day: high temp. of 57°, low 29°, no snow on the ground, and only the shallowest little pools of water frozen but soon melted as the day warmed. If it hadn’t...

On Saturday December 15th, 22 courageous birders ventured into the field for the Toppenish Christmas bird count. The weather was very pleasant; the sun shone down on us for much of the day, and the temperature got up into the mid 40s. This was certainly the warmest bird count I can remember being a part of, and I think this...

Q: It’s fall (or winter) and there are still hummingbirds in my yard – shouldn’t they have migrated by now?

In 1982, YVAS members put up 57 nest boxes in the Wenas area. The trail was expanded over the years and now has 132 nest boxes along a 14 mile stretch of North Wenas Road between Audubon Road and Durr Road. In 1994, the trail was named in honor of Virginia and Harold Vredenburgh to recognize their years of tireless...

I attended a public meeting on May 31st in Prosser hosted by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) which is developing a new management plan for the Sunnyside-Snake River Wildlife Area in south-central Washington. The wildlife area consists of 17 units that cover more than 20,840 acres in Franklin, Benton, and Yakima counties. Almost half of the acreage...

A few years ago, YVAS obtained a grant to buy some lifesized bird models. We used these for events, including the Yakima Greenway’s “Kiddin’ Around” program. This year, when we received a request from a Terrace Heights Cub Scout group for something educational for one of their meetings, we recreated a similar event at the Yakima Area Arboretum.

Any time of year is a great time to get out and see birds, but migration time is when flocks of colorful birds are at their peak, moving along their migratory flyways toward their breeding and wintering grounds.

Since 1993, International Migratory Bird Day has been celebrated during the second weekend in May in the Western Hemisphere. World Migratory Bird...

It’s that time of year again when we start getting out to go birding in areas we couldn’t get to in the winter. I want to remind everyone that we are still in the process of color-banding White-headed Woodpeckers in the Wenas in areas of the Ellensburg Pass Road, Mud Flats Road, Wenas Campground and Hog Ranch Road, Milk Canyon,...

Psst…Have you heard? 2018 has been designated as the year of the bird. How so you ask? Well in the latest Audubon magazine, David Yarnold, CEO/PRESIDENT, AUDUBON, states that the charismatic editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine (Susan Goldberg) called and asked about an alliance between the two organizations to declare 2018 as The Year of the Bird. What if other...

On Sunday November 12th, four Yakima Audubon members joined me for a trip to Vantage to view the fall migrant waterfowl spectacle along the Columbia River. A quick stop at the Tjossem Pond in Ellensburg yielded two surprises; 2 female Red-breasted Merganers among the more expected Common Mergansers and two leucistic Canada Geese hanging out with a flock of Canada...

As the human population and activities (habitat alteration & destruction) in North America expanded, bluebird populations plummeted due to the resulting shortage of natural cavities for nesting, pesticide use and perhaps most importantly, by importing two European species of birds to North America, the House Sparrow and the European Starling.

On August 16th I was joined by Annika Willette for a day of shorebirding around the lower valley. We started at the Kerry’s Pond, which was relatively productive. As soon as we got out of the car to scope the pond most of the ducks flushed, but we were still able to pick out Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Cinnamon Teal, Mallard,...

While we sitting at our patio table with friends on August 17 and enjoying some of Chris’s blueberry crisp, a Warbling Vireo landed near us in our cedar tree. Unfortunately, I was the only one at the table who got a good look at it. It was nice to see it in our yard and it was the first one...

Seven birders (and flower lovers) took a hike at Snow Mountain Ranch. Despite the cooler, wetter conditions there than in year’s past, we saw some great birds and some beautiful wildflowers. If I knew the plant names better, I could have kept a list of plants as well as birds.

Did you know that trees can be more important for wildlife dead than alive? When trees die, their wood softens and rots providing places for animals to create cavities that are used as nest and shelter sites. In the northwest, nearly 100 species of wildlife use snags including some of our favorite birds such as bluebirds, owls, woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees,...